1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a semiconductor device having a structure capable of preventing cracks produced due to various stresses.
Further, another invention of the present application relates to a semiconductor device capable of being reduced in size and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to prevent cracks produced in a semiconductor device, techniques described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2-17162 (laid open on May 1, 1990), 2-205351 (laid open on Aug. 15, 1990), 3-259555 (laid open on Nov. 19, 1991), 1-191453 (laid open on Aug. 1, 1989), 4-84452 (laid open on Mar. 17, 1992) and 6-209055 (laid open on Jul. 26, 1994) have been proposed.
Further, techniques described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 4-162736 (laid open on Jun. 8, 1992) and 6-37127 (laid open on Feb. 10, 1994) and Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 4-46551 (laid open on Apr. 21, 1992) have been proposed to realize a small-sized semiconductor device.
With the foregoing in view, it is an object of the invention in the present application to provide various structures capable of preventing cracks produced in a semiconductor device.
It is an object of another invention in the present application to provide a small-sized semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device.
According to the invention of the present application, for achieving the above objects, a lead frame equipped with a semiconductor device is provided with an improved structure, or an improved connection structure is applied to a connection between a semiconductor element and a substrate provided within a semiconductor device. As an alternative to this, a stress relaxing material is provided between a substrate equipped with a semiconductor element and a sealing resin.
Further, according to another invention of the present application, there has been proposed a structure in which metal thin lines extending from metallic balls respectively connected to electrodes of a semiconductor element are exposed from the surface of a sealing material and the surface of each exposed metal thin line has a width substantially equal to the diameter of each metal thin line.
Here, the typical ones of various inventions of the present application have been shown in brief. However, the various inventions of the present application and specific configurations of these inventions will be understood from the following description.